Table of contents for April 2021 in Performance VW

Performance VW|April 2021

BADLY DUBBED

I’ve built and owned some quite nice cars over the years, but sadly I’ve never owned a garage of my own to house any of them in. Now, I’m not blaming my parents, but I genuinely feel I would be a far more competent weekend mechanic these days had we owned a family home back in the day with a garage where we (my dad and I) could have tinkered around with our cars. I’ve often joked that these days, the reason I’ve never bought a house with a garage attached is because I would then be tempted to start messing around with my cars and trying to learn how to ‘wrench’ on them. At 45, sadly, I feel that ship has sailed… Was I slightly jealous, still, when I…

2 min

Performance VW|April 2021

WHAT'S NEW

AIR AND BREATH Big news on the air ride scene, Air Lift recently acquired air tank manufacturer Flo Airride Mfg, which was founded in just 2016 and has a reputation for excellence within the lowered truck market. Air Lift Company will also welcome former Flo Airride-owner Mike Alexander to the Air Lift Performance team as the Air Lift Performance Brand Manager. Alexander has worked for almost two decades within the automotive aftermarket, so this should be a match made in heaven. We look forward to seeing what Air Lift does with the acquisition. It is currently transitioning the production of Flo Airride tanks to their Lansing, Michigan facility. CONTACT: www.airliftperformance.com WHEELS AND THINGS Leighton Vans is proud to unveil its allnew ‘LV-2’ alloy wheel design – created specifically for VW…

8 min

Performance VW|April 2021

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Back in October, with the weather deteriorating, winter fast approaching and Covid19 taking full effect, you could say the team behind the GTI Festival had the odds stacked firmly against them. Santa Pod can be a bleak place at the best of times, but on a grim, wet and windy day, well, we can think of better places to be. Thankfully, somebody up there was obviously looking down on them come Sunday the 11th, because the dull, rainy clouds of the previous week made way for blue skies and bright sunshine. So you know what that meant? Well, chances are we were in for something of a treat with dry show cars and quick quarter-mile times! Santa Pod had spent the first half of 2020 becoming Covid secure, meaning they…

3 min

Performance VW|April 2021

VTEC JUST KICKED IN

Much of this VW story is pretty familiar. Twenty-six year-old Jake Crocker, a builder and woodworker from Barnstable, Devon became interested in VWs during his childhood. “From a young age I’ve always been interested in cars and being able to mod them. I always loved watching West Coast Customs and seeing how far you can go with a car”. At 18, Jake was the proud owner of a SEAT Arosa. He bought the Mk1 Caddy you see here shortly afterwards and would alternate between the two. Although the MTV influence shows through again with the ultimate goal of a second-gen Ford F100, the Caddy is by far Jake’s ultimate VW: “The Mk1 caddy has always been my dream Dub, I think mainly for the tailgate and how good they look…

7 min

Performance VW|April 2021

READERS’RIDES

JAKE DALE @jake_Dale_ AGE: 24 MODEL: 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R DSG PURCHASED: In 2019 off my Dad (it was a family car before!) FIRST MOD: I immediately purchased and fitted a full Remus catback system and a Scorpion 200cell sports cat downpipe, followed closely by a set of V-Maxx Coilers FAVOURITE PART: It’s got to be the way it sits. Also how quick and useable it is. Stage 2+ Revo software boasts over 320bhp, more than enough to have fun with! SPENT: Not including the car, upwards of £5k FUTURE PLANS: Definitely some three-piece splits and also I need some wingbacks in my life! NATHAN BIRCHALL AGE: 27 LOCATION: Manchester, UK MODEL: 1995 Mk3 Golf VR6 PURCHASED: Bought it 12 years ago as a stock Storm grey VR6 and turned…

5 min

Performance VW|April 2021

YOU RAISE ME UP…

As you may have noticed on these pages over the years, I’ve had a lot of different cars. You may also notice that I don’t really sell many of them. Which does create a bit of a storage dilemna. A normal person would probably sell some cars to make room, but that didn’t seem like much fun, so I went the complete opposite way instead! After literally minutes of thinking about it, I decided that stacking one car on top of another would be a great idea, and then after some measurements I realised I could probably stack five cars on top of five cars, thereby making even more space. Which in turn led to lots of research crunching of numbers, and after going down a rabbit hole, I realised…

4 min

Performance VW|April 2021

TALKTHE TALK No.225

JOHN WHITE AGE: 45 OCCUPATION: Insurance broker JOB TITLE: MD of Brentacre specialist car insurance LOCATION: Swansea, Wales Top dog at Brentacre Insurance, Rallye owner, VW enthusiast and thoroughly nice chap to boot… What got you into VWs in the first place? The beautiful Mk2 Golf GTI. What's your favourite issue of PVW? The one with JD Engineering’s 16v G60 Corrado (PVW 7/00). What's your favourite PVW feature car? I’m afraid that would have to be the same as above, automotive perfection. Worst modded VW you’ve laid eyes on? It has to be the stance and camber gang - JUST WHY!!! What are your views on the VW scene? I really like the track-spec look, but then I always have!! Favourite car/build you’ve been involved with? That would have to…

1 min

Performance VW|April 2021

DA FLAVA

Building a half decent custom car is not easy, in fact it’s downright difficult. We’re not even talking about a prime example here, no earth shattering mega build that's going to blowup the Internet or have car show crowds wide eyed and speechless… just your regular mildly modded daily driver with a spot of weekend wrenching and a little spare revenue thrown at it is what we’re about. One false move and you’re busted; wrong rims, less than righteous ride height, bogus bolt-ons… you know when you’ve got it wrong and the pain is real. At that point it’s all over and no amount of dodgy decals, tasteless tat or even those eBay rain gutter window visor monstrosities are going to save you…you’re done. Its normally right around then that…

9 min

Performance VW|April 2021

FORTUNATE SON

Tommy Connolly knows a thing or two about luck, and it’s not always the good kind. Six years in the making, his aired out, widebody Mk7 results as much from knowing the right people at the right time as it does his willingness to try new ideas. But it’s a process that’s been steered just as heavily by the moments he’d rather forget, and that includes the one that kickstarted the entire build. Until a few months before he bought it, he’d probably have imagined his route to a feature car panning out very differently. “Before this, I had a Mk5 Rabbit with the 2.5-litre engine,” he recalls. “I’d owned it from new, and I loved it. But in fall 2014 there was some heavy construction work in the area…

11 min

Performance VW|April 2021

HEADS UP

2020 has obviously been a very odd year, with a constantly shifting set of rules making any car show difficult, so the VWDRC were delighted that GTI Festival was going ahead as planned, meaning they could have a round of VWDRC Heads Up! As it was going to be the first and only round of the year, the decision was taken to open the entry up to any VAG car regardless of engine or quarter mile time, just so club members could get out and compete as well as putting on a show for those attending GTI Festival. So, there was quite an array of cars entered, from Jay Folley’s VR6 MK2 Golf, Bruce Harvey’s shaft-snapping MK3 TDI Golf to Rob Carter’s Cossy powered RWD MK1 Passat. Three qualifying rounds…

3 min

Performance VW|April 2021

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Regular readers will be no stranger to our shenanigans here at Power Maxed Racing - one of our fearsome little Polos featured in these very pages just a few months ago, and one of my personal projects (a raceinspired Mk2 Golf VR6) was also in Our Cars for a good couple of years. We’re best known, however, for our factory supported team in the British Touring Car Championship, where our Vauxhall Astras (we know) are piloted by the legend that is Jason Plato and… well, we haven’t announced who’ll be driving the other one this year just yet. Other than winning races, we’re actually well known in the motorsport world for designing and building race cars, including a stable of VAG machines. You’ll be seeing a lot more from us…

3 min

Performance VW|April 2021

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1 min

Performance VW|April 2021

RELOADED

While Carl Taylor’s ‘Concept 95’ Mk3 Golf (which we revisited last month) took the main cover car slot in October 2009, many will argue Thatcher Shultz Avus silver example was possibly the more worthy car. Carl’s 90’s themed car maybe ‘popped’ more on cover, but there were no gimmicks or silly nicknames where Thatcher’s car was concerned (other than his two bikini-clad friends that tagged along for the photoshoot). Everything here, from the pumped-up body to the force-fed motor meant business! When Thatcher picked up the ’98 GTI during college, it wasn’t exactly the Mk3 beater you might expect a cash strapped student to drive. “It was a fully-build Projektzwo show car,” he revealed. You don’t have to spend long in Mr Shultz’s presence to realise this guy doesn’t do…

4 min

Performance VW|April 2021

ULTRALOW BILSTEIN INSIDE

Tuning house, Streetec, over in Germany - responsible for the bright yellow Mk8 Golf on August 2020’s cover - has just announced a new suspension range; ultraLOW | Bilstein Inside coilovers, designed for maximum lowering of your vehicle. The kits are based around Bilstein shock absorbers, specifically designed to run super low without compromise. They also feature a two-piece spring system, with preload and a main spring, which comes directly from the race track and guarantees a sufficient spring preload for maximum driving safety at all times. The new range is designed and manufactured in Germany and is apparently available for all VW Golfs, from Mk5 to Mk8, plus all later Audi, SEAT and Skodas, the new VW ID.3 and the T5/T6 Transporter. The Golf kit is available for use…

1 min

Performance VW|April 2021

HIDDEN TRESER

What do you get if you cross a Mk2 Golf with a Pontiac Trans-Am? Well, not this, but the front end is certainly a talking point isn’t it? That distinctive central spar in the grille may have a whiff of late-1970s Detroit, but this super-rare and period-modified GTI has way too much depth and texture to its story to dismiss it as a mere pastiche. You see, the roots of this incredibly obscure creation go extremely deep. Treser is a name we should all be more familiar with, as the ripples created by Walter Treser’s design ingenuity resonate throughout the VAG-o-sphere and beyond in more ways than you might imagine. But before we peel that particular onion, let’s first consider why a Golf might have been modified in this manner…

8 min

Performance VW|April 2021

MASKED CRUSADERS

The annual Eurokracy event, held at the awesome ICAR Miracle Motorsports Complex, is Canada’s premier European car event and despite the whole Covid crisis, last year’s gathering was just as bonkers as in previous years. A drag strip, a race track and a burnout arena - sound like the perfect setting for a car show? Well, it is, and that’s exactly what the ICAR complex offers attendees. Throw in perfect weather and a bunch of overly excited car enthusiasts just itching to get out and, well, you pretty much have yourself modified car heaven. Even Covid couldn’t put a downer on things (well, unless you were based in America, as the borders were still closed at the time). As a precautionary measure, face masks were obligatory, hand sanitiser dispensers were…

6 min

Performance VW|April 2021

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1 min

Performance VW|April 2021

RCARS

Elliott Roberts – Editor PROJECT: GREY PRIDE 90_Golf Rallye Started: Oct 10, 2007 Comments: Did he mention the engine is back in? Might have found a garage to keep it in, too Nick Williams – Photographer PROJECT: ROXY 11_VW T5.1 Kombi DSG Started: Jul 31, 2015 Comments: Hey, Nick… remember when Roxy looked this good? She needs a bit of loving, sir… Jape Tiitinen – Contributor PROJECT: ALL OF THE AVANTS Started: Which one? Comments: My name's Jape and I'm a BBS LM Whore. Jape's owned his share of LMs over time Elliott Roberts – Editor PROJECT: SOCCER MOM 09_Q5 3.0 TDI Started: Apr 10, 2017 Comments: Fire up the quattro! Q5 has been earning its keep during this cold front Tony Taylor – Sub Editor PROJECT: SIX PARTY 06_A6…

1 min

Performance VW|April 2021

REWIND

1 YEAR AGO APRIL 2020 Wow, it’s a year since Nathan White’s show stopping Bora took cover. Also inside we brought you Sebastian Strasser’s Rocket Bunny-kitted Mk2 VR6, Paul Foster’s timeless Manila green Mk1 16v on bike carbs and Nick Kramarczyk’s retro Mk2 16v on ITBs. We then ran a road test on Ben Pocock’s Golf R estate, headed to Finland to bag Sami Talvitie’s road-race Mk5 R32, then hopped the Atlantic to cover Euro Summit and finally wrapped by checking out Jamie Orr’s latest Road Trip. 5 YEARS AGO APRIL 2016 Five years ago we kicked off things with Tom Klein Gunnewiek’s truly amazing Mk1 Scirocco, followed by Mario Verswyvel’s boosted five-pot Mk2 and Joe Kautz’s stunner of a Mk3 VRT. We weren’t done though, we also checked out…

2 min

Performance VW|April 2021

SPECIALIST

AMD TUNING Unit 6, Cliffside Trade Park, Motherwell Way, West Thurrock, Essex, RM20 3LE Tel: 01708 861827 Web: www.amdessex.com VAG tuner, performance parts, styling, fitting, servicing, rolling road, software specialist APR MOTORSPORT Awesome GTI, Unit 1 Siemens Road, Manchester, M44 5AH Tel: 0333 240 6823 Web: www.goapr.co.uk VW Group OE supplier and motorsport company that develops and distributes VAG and Porsche ECU upgrades for petrol and diesel engines. Turbo, exhaust, intercooler, brake and fuel pump upgrades through its UK European HQ AT AUTOMOTIVE Northcott Road, Netherton, Dudley, West Midlands, DY2 9PR Tel: 01384 243004 Web: www.atautomotive.co.uk Servicing and repairs. Audi specialist AUTOGLYM Letchworth, Herts Tel: 0845 130 4536 Web: www.autoglym.com Car cleaning products, car care products, car valeting, car detailing AUTOLOGIC Autologic House, London Road, Wheatley, Oxon, OX33 1JH Tel:…

9 min